A New Family
by McFadden
Summary: Sequel to BCD: After Abby's death, King joins a new sleeper cell. Will he be able to regain some of his life back? Or will his inner struggles and constant reminders end up destroying him
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Here it is folks! The sequel to Behind Closed Doors. I've been alternating writing this with Pandora's Box (Update coming shortly) No, it will not take me ages to update this one since I've already written out the majority of the story. I hope you take kindly to my new characters and keep a spot for Dash, because he's back like Shaft baby! Dependant upon reviews or notes to let me know how well this is received, I shall post chapters accordingly. Let's see what happens to King now...

McFadden-

Chapter One

King woke up suddenly on the last night that he would ever spend in the Honeycomb. A horrible mental flashback had just occurred.

_The heart monitor was still screaming when Caulder and Dash, and even Zoe ran into the medical room to find_ _King with her in his arms. That's when King heard Zoe's scream. It tore through him and he felt as though Abby had died all over again. Caulder just picked her up and carried her away. No amount of whispered condolences would ever make it alright for that little girl again. King just knew it. Dash stayed in the room and cleaned the blood spatter from King. If Dash didn't do it, he knew King wouldn't have..._

Dash and Caulder both understood what happened as soon as King pulled himself together enough to speak. But, knowing no solace would comfort him anytime soon, both Caulder and Dash let him be until he was ready to come back to the land of the living, as they themselves grieved for Abby in their own ways. If anything did come as a result of this, it was only that the rift and bitterness between Caulder and King were forgotten

_King was angrier that Caulder was there when he was not. Maybe then things would've turned out differently. Maybe Abby would still be alive._

_Maybe he wouldn't feel like such a murderer..._

King's eyes sifted in the darkness. He looked at the empty space beside him in the bed, Abby's side. He felt her part of the bed with his hand and imagined he could still see her outline there in the dark, creasing the sheets where she normally laid. Her scent was still embedded into the mattress. That caused more heartache than comfort. Almost everything about her was still fresh in his mind, all except the sound of her voice. It had been gone for 3 weeks and 5 days, and he wanted it back. But now, in the end, he had lost everything hadn't he...

Tomorrow was going to be a different day. King would leave this place with its bad memories behind for good. Caulder and Dash were taking him into their sleeper cell. As for Zoe, Dash had placed her safety in the care of someone who would be able to give her a normal life, and hopefully reverse the damage that had been done to her childhood by living this way, but he knew the truth. King was on his own from now on.

Walking around in a perpetual fuzziness that his sleepless night had put him under, King wasn't too alert or keen on having the sound of jarring rap music being pumped into his ears as he was picked up by Caulder. The Norwegian realized this and turned the volume down as he got into the car.

"Sorry, Dash was the last to use the car."

King looked at him with cheap loathing.

"...And it took you the whole way here to figure out where the volume button was?"

Caulder grinned at the scruffy, bed-headed man. He had missed King's jabs. Truthfully, King had all but lost his sense of humor and was more or less a mute in the weeks following Abigail's death. It was nice to hear some of it return. Caulder thought that King would've wanted to bring more things with him, but he was surprised to see only his tactical and weaponry sack and two duffels full of clothes. Nonetheless, he pitched them into the back of the Explorer and started their wordless drive to King's new residence.

As they approached the drive, King noticed that the compound was secluded by massive trees, but what was perhaps more intriguing was that, once they pulled up to the main house, King could see the entire city below in a drop-off from behind the compound.

Entering into the strange place for the first time, King didn't really know exactly what to expect judging from its looks outside. It was massive, with its huge sets of steel doors and cinder block casings. Caulder pointed to a large commons area where it seemed that everyone hung out there in their spare time. Remnants of signs of life were scattered upon the floor and chairs. A large scripture's journal with sketches, a stack of books by a lounge chair, a laptop King fairly recognized as belonging to Dash. And lastly, a somewhat semi-fresh residual spot on the floor caused by some spilled liquid. Caulder's deep, cultured voice spoke out loud.

"This is home...although, it seems like we're the only ones here for the moment. I thought Dash was going to meet me as soon as he dropped the kids off but I guess he got caught up."

At the mention of the word kids, King shot him a moderately horrified look. The thought that anymore children were exposed to this life would make him sick to his stomach right now. The Norwegian seemed to catch onto the source of King's anxiousness and cracked a comfortable smile.

"I was being figurative King, there not actually children. Although the jury's still out on the oldest of the three. I guess just make yourself at home until they get back."

King shrugged and eyed his prospects to relax. He chose the recliner next to the stack of novels. Picking one up, he read the title. Anything called 'Invisible Monsters' didn't seem too enticing to crack open, even if it did have an attractive silhouette of a woman on it. He just entertained himself with scanning the room more as Caulder excused himself to go get cleaned up.

Not even a half hour passed before King's nerves were startled as he heard faint shouting that grew closer with every syllable. To his surprise, the voice seemed to be that of a woman.

"Every time...every-_fucking_-time!"

A small, meek-looking boy, _King wouldn't call anyone with a stature of a toothpick a man,_ paced into the room anxiously looking over his shoulder. The shouts and what sounded like _apologies?... _were becoming clearer until a man, taller than King and built like a brick wall, stumbled back into the entrance looking equally as anxious as the boy before him.

"If I hadn't have done that then we'd still be there wasting time."

His hands were out stretched trying to catch the noticeably smaller, gloved hand that clawed out at his forearm. He hissed through his teeth and recoiled, shooting daggers at the assailant with his eyes. King was marginally amused until the owner of the hand became more than just a hand and a voice.

The hand became a toned, well-defined forearm, attached to sculpted shoulders, peeking through sable colored hair, that hid something of a face belonging to a 6'1 frame.

"You son of a bitch! You never _think _before you _act_! I swear to fucking God that if you set off a silver shrapnel bomb that close to me or _anyone _again, I promise you that a bomb will be the next and last thing your dick gets blown by."

King's eyebrows rose substantially. For a second, just one split second, he thought of Danica. He watched as the man grimaced. The woman's face had finally been cleared from her halo of dark hair and she looked livid. A piece of King's old attitude echoed in his head. _Hot...but livid. _

"Hey, my blood is your blood. Remember that..."

She sighed and glared at him, although her gaze seemed to have lost some of it's venom.

"Oh don't give me that nepotism shit Lindsay, just..."

She sighed at him, the longer she stood there the more apparent it was that almost all of her anger had melted away, but it was replaced with disappointment.

"...Just don't do that again."

Dash startled King by elbowing him, so far his presence had been unnoticed.

"It's like a movie..."

King leaned in and whispered.

"...But there's no way in hell that I'd let Toots over there yell at me that way."

Just as soon as the whisper left his mouth, he wished he could've sucked it back in because he knew that she had heard him. King froze as she set her pair of enraged eyes on him. Dash recoiled with a wince.

"Apparently, you don't know _Toots _very well..."

King watched as every muscle visibly tightened in the woman's body and he suddenly felt very sorry that she apparently had superior hearing.

"Who the fuck are you!"

His mouth opened and closed like a dry-docked fish but nothing came out. Bela just glared at him. Her gaze both accusatory and _very _uncomfortable for him as she sized King up. Without warning she was instantly at level with his face and he flinched, feeling her too close to him. Lindsay looked over at King and recognition hit him. He walked over to the woman, grabbing her shoulders lightly, and chided her.

"Be nice Bela, that's Hannibal King. It would be unbecoming of you to leave him with such a sour first impression."

She scoffed and harshly shrugged herself out of his grasp.

"Speak for yourself...I asked him a question."

Lindsay gave her a stern look along with an equally clipped tone.

"You're making yourself look like a bitch, Bela..."

Her sculpted brow lifted in frigid amusement as she casually strolled across the room, shooting daggers in King's direction and then replying to Lindsay scathingly.

"Yeah, well at least I don't look like Ned Flanders with a beard."

There was a brief silence in the room before Dash began to choke from trying not to laugh outright. Lindsay on the other hand, gave King an apologetic look, clenched his jaw, and stiffly walked out of the room after Bela. Dash chimed in at the perfect moment.

"And...that's the kids..."

King turned to him like he had just been sent to an asylum.

"What the hell was that?"

Caulder laughed and walked towards them.

"Just a little sibling rivalry..."

Dash nodded.

"By all intensive purposes Bela was right though, Lindsay's irrational behavior could've killed them. Hell, I'm almost sure Mikey would've lost an arm had Bela not grabbed him."

King couldn't help but interject.

"Is that the skinny boy?"

Caulder mouth ticked upward in its corners and he nodded. King looked around the room curious as to where said boy had disappeared to. Caulder glanced to him and clapped his hands once.

"Well, I'm beat! I'm sorry there wasn't much of a warm welcome tonight. They _do_ behave more often than not if you can believe it. As for the compound, we'll give you a better tour once the sun's up, for now we have to figure out a more suitable sleeping arrangement than the den."

Dash broke in.

"Actually he can have Mikey's room."

Caulder's eyes furrowed and King looked equally hesitant.

"I'm not bunking with a dude...

Disregarding his comment, Caulder spoke over him.

"Why would Mikey not want to sleep his room?"

This was news to Caulder. Dash's lips tipped up ever so slightly.

"Well he hasn't exactly been sleeping there for about 2 months."

Realizing the nomadic sleeping habits of his group, Caulder sighed.

"Yeah but we only have so many couches he can sleep on, he'll get tired of it eventually and then where's he going to sleep?"

Dash shrugged, he smile getting a tad bigger but noone seemed to notice except for King, who was nervously awaiting the reasoning behind his grin.

"Put Mikey in Bela's room, hers is big enough for another bed. He's been in there more than in his own room, besides, he almost got injured tonight. Trust me, he's not going to mind."

Noting the double meaning in his words King began to wonder just how close the two were. _Please don't let them be shacking it up._ But that was the last thing he wanted to envision. If he thought that someone that scrawny to get with someone that pretty he might start to resent the little fucker before he knew anything about him. He could only imagine him using Bela for his own personal jungle gym. Before King could worry himself too much further, said scrawny boy appeared from the hall and just winked at the whole group as he walked past. The outburst from King that followed just couldn't be stopped.

"You've gotta be shittin' me..."

King was thoroughly grossed out for the evening and as Caulder led him to Mikey's room he was grateful that it didn't seem to be close to any other bedroom. So there was hope that he wouldn't overhear something he could truly have done without.

Nighttime, or better put; sleeping, was the worst part of day for King because no matter how much he tried to pull himself out of his past and focus on reality, his dreams always haunted him. _She always haunted him..._

He laid down in the unfamiliar bed that was only a twin size and uncomfortably shifted from side to side. His eyes glared up at the darkened ceiling and he sighed heavily. His as-close-to-perfect-as-he-could-get-it life was ruined. Many times he had wondered exactly what would've happened if he hadn't pulled the trigger.

_You know exactly what would've happened you fucking idiot. She would've turned! She would've resented you for letting her turn. The resent would turn to hate, and as soon as the bloodlust hit her, she would've killed you instead._

King pleaded with his mind to shut up and rest but there were so many thoughts and unanswered questions floating around. He could just hope that exhaustion would be kinder tonight and take him early and not leave him to suffer. But at long last, it was in vain. A tear slid down his cheek as he turned over on his side, and it would definitely not be his last for tonight. A fleeting thought passed through his mind as King closed his eyes. He wondered if Abby would've liked these people...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to my readers and 2 reviewers. I know King by himself will be hard to swallow, but I intend for my newer characters to be interesting in their own rights. Abby is still around in memory's sake. Here's the second chapter. I hope more feel so bold as to review. Tell me you love it, tell me you hate it. I just want some solid feedback so I don't waste your time with dribble.

(On a side note to all of the wonderful people who asked about Grandma...She's still kicking. She says that she's not planning on dying anytime soon ;oP ...I love my Grandma!)

McFadden-

Chapter Two

Early afternoon arrived just as King settled into a dreamless sleep. Much to his dismay the rest was immediately stolen from him. Here, unlike the Honeycomb, if one person was up, then the whole damn house was up. Groaning out loud, King wondered just how long he would last under these conditions.

He found his way to the kitchen by accidentally walking into several different rooms and by the time he saw the linoleum floor, he was craving coffee and aspirin. Caulder was already there eating a sandwich and looking at some science journal magazine. He took King's appearance in with squinted eyes when he heard the shuffling of his steps.

"Not a good night huh? Sorry man, maybe we can find you a bigger mattress today. I think there's another one in one of these storage units somewhere."

King made a noncommital grunt and popped three pain pills into his mouth, swishing the lukewarm coffee with it to make them go down faster. Tromping, heavy footsteps could be heard throughout the place coming closer to them. So Far King could only think of one person who could produce a sound like that. Just then, the abominable experiment of a human being walked through the kitchen with a much better countenance about him than what King originally saw. Lindsay didn't look so scary now..._not really_ _anyway._ Had he made any sudden moves in King's direction though, he probably would've shit himself.

He nodded a hello to King and threw some electrical tape away in the garbage. He looked around and then met King's eyes.

"Ready for a tour?"

Caulder got up and went into the surveillance room nudging and handing King off to Lindsay who headed in the opposite direction.

"I suppose this way is first. A lot of this is going to be boring, so I won't be shocked or offended if I turned around and see that you've wondered off on your own."

They went down a hall that King apparently missed the night before and took a right. Lindsay's big paws for hands made a sweeping gesture at the rather large and warm looking area.

"This is the Study I guess..."

Walking into the room, he found that it was filled wall to wall with setups, schematics, books, and building mockups, King's mouth fell open. This place was so much bigger than the hideout. He took a moment to look at everything and noticed that most of the building models were of local places. King passed by a comfy looking chair covered with equally cozy blankets piled up on it. It wasn't until Lindsay began speaking to it, that King realized that there was someone underneath them all, and that the copy of The Da Vinci Code wasn't really floating in mid air, it was being held.

"What are we going on now?"

The book moved and revealed the concentrated face of Lindsay's sister, a more _subdued _version. She smirked at her brother and snuggled deeper into the covers, paying no attention whatsoever that King had been standing there.

"The better half of 36 hours."

His furrowed his eyebrows, checking his watch, and nodded. She spoke to him in a voice that was perpetually husky because of the hours she spent awake. Immediately King's imagination went into overdrive as to why she might have lost the sleep. Bela glanced up in King's direction, a faint sense of hesitation settled in her eyes before they disappeared back behind her book. He wasn't sure now if he wanted her attention if it was going to garner that type of reaction every single time he walked into the same room. King had yet to get a feel for her. Usually his ability to access people worked within minutes of being around him. He wasn't too sure about this one, but she did make a hell of an entrance last night, not to mention that snide comment to his appearance. It had been funny, but odd that a complete stranger would so that. But, then again, she had been overtly angry. If there was one connection between his old crew and this one, was that her attitude had been reminiscent of Abby's whenever she would get frustrated. As much as it angered him to think about the past, it was a comfort to hear such a familiar trait.

Lindsay messed up her hair even more than it already was and she just sat there, letting him do it and not threatening his lively hood.

"Nice job...try to pull the full 48 and I'll let you have _The Therapist._"

She moved the book to the side and raised a delicately shaped eyebrow at him challengingly. Lindsay just stood there. Bela, putting the book down on her lap, spoke.

"Serious?"

Her brother unfolded his arms and held out a hand causing her to chuckle lightly and smile.

"You're going down."

Instead of shaking her hand like King had expected, he watched as Lindsay hooked his pinky with hers as she brought the side of his hand up to kiss it. Following, he did the same thing to hers.

"Deal."

Lindsay walked away with King in tow as Bela resumed reading her book. As soon as they were out of earshot, he asked.

"What was that all about?"

Lindsay opened up another steel-framed door to a workout room and looked back at King over his shoulder and smiled knowingly.

"You never had a sister, did you?"

Confused, he just shook his head.

"No...only child."

"_Thank God for that!_"

Lindsay bit down a laugh as Dash walked through the hallway. King punched him in the arm but Dash just kept on walking and chuckling to himself. Lindsay paused for a minute to consider that King had been an only child and then replied offhandedly.

"That explains a lot..."

King looked offended for a second and then just plain flummoxed because he wasn't sure what he had meant by that. But Lindsay just continued to talk undeterred.

"It's been our little 'thing' since we were young. We were brought into this after our family were attacked by vampires. I was 18 at the time. Bela was 16. The night the vampires came, she would've been the first to go, they ransacked her room first, but she wasn't there. If she did sleep, Bela never slept in there. We'd find her all over the house, but never in her room. The case is still very much true here, although she favors the study. Her trouble with sleeping was what saved her life."

King didn't dare mention the inclination of the sleeping arrangement of Bela and Mikey, he thought better of it. Lindsay reached what looked to be the weapons vault and sat on a bench discarding the practice rounds and putting then in their rightful place. King saw him toss a pair of tactical gloves into the locker closest to him.

"..Bela saved mine too actually. See, she's a climber. Whenever she got restless, she would climb onto the roof and lay out to look at the city lights. She was the one who actually got me out. Pulled me right through the second story bedroom. We watched from the skylight as they slaughtered our parents. Just a couple of vampires looking for a meal. There was no malicious plots, foul family secrets at hand. At least that would've been easier for me to accept. But no. We were just intended to be another dinner..."

He threw his Timberland boots hard into the back of the locker, making the metal dent. The wear and tear of worry and the job really showing on his face. King felt as though he was looking into a mirror for a moment.

"...That's when Bela stopped sleeping pretty much altogether. We lived in the woods for over a month, staking out our own house, _our own fucking house_, hoping that they would come back..."

King watched as Lindsay's eyes darkened for a second. There was a lot that was still untold in them. He wasn't hiding secrets, but King felt that the things Lindsay didn't say were for his benefit for now.

King found his eyes to be a lot darker in shade from Bela's but they had the same color. His were more a brownish-green while hers had been a predominate flash of bright green with a mixture of all the colors hazel eyes had. Her brother though, his gaze looked too disturbed for King to want to know what the bigger man was hiding.

"...During the day, we gathered all the silver we could find in the house, and kept it close. I was afraid that she would be lured into being one of them. She loves the night enough as it is. This is all natural to her. And she loved reading all kinds of books about them up until that point. Not to mention that our mother actually named her after Bela Legosi. That's pretty fucked up in retrospect. So every now and again when I used to feel her slipping away, I would make her a promise. The little handshake thing is just how we seal it."

Lindsay shoved his duffel into what room was left. He pointed to a row of empty lockers next to the one King was leaning against.

"You can have any one of those. This one is mine, there's Caulder's, and the one you're leaning on belongs to Bela. Dash pretty much just throws his shit, and wherever it lands is where he is until he uses it again. Mikey doesn't have one of these, he has his own little room."

King pushed himself and looked inside of the opened door he was against, immediately picking up on a nice female scent embedded into the clothes. Bela's style didn't differ that much from what Abby used to wear either. He did notice one thing that was odd though.

"What's with all the sweaters and jackets?"

There was easily over 30 in there. He saw a half smile form on her brother's face.

"My sister gets cold a lot. Cold natured. Her hands are like ice cubes after the sun goes down. It's a no brainer for Christmas presents though. It's either that, or knives. She has what she calls a _healthy obsession_ with those. That's what she's betting on with me right now actually. Check this out."

He reached deep inside his locker and pulled out a long metal box.

"This..."

Opening the lid revealed one of the largest knives King had seen. Any idiot could see how sharp it was. It was just a step short of being a dagger. Made of pure silver with a clean but serrated edge.

"This is _The Therapist_."

_Screw the bet, King wanted that. It was perfect! _Edges cleanly serrated, 8" blade, silver-tipped. It was beautiful.

"That's insane! So is Bela any good with it or does she just like to collect lethal weapons?"

Lindsay shrugged.

"Both... but her greatest talent lies elsewhere. But it's something I can't just simply tell you. You have to see that shit for yourself. Me on the other hand, I'm a brawler. See these scars?"

He looked and saw the jagged and harsh scarring across the tops of Lindsay's hands.

"Silver-plated titanium rods throughout my hands. It's like ruling the vampires with an iron fist. Feel it."

Sure enough, King poked at his hands and felt the metal beneath. He withdrew his touch, horrified. _Why would anyone go through that kind of modification?_

"Unfortunately, when I first became a hunter, I shattered both of my hands from a nasty accident involving a vampire and a manhole cover. I was going to have to put titanium in there anyway if I wanted to keep the strength in my hands, so Caulder just pimped it out a little bit. Bela says I'm like a fucked up version of Hellboy now."

King couldn't help but agree. He could imagine Lindsay slamming his fist down hard and that being the end of whatever vampire that was foolish enough to fight him. But he seemed to at least be passive most of the time which led to King thinking about his sister. Then, he just decided to get a plaguing question off of his chest.

"What's your sister's deal anyway?"

He heard him quietly chuckle and give him a sideways glance as he put the knife back into its case.

"She makes you nervous doesn't she?"

King didn't want to admit it, but then again he didn't have to. A knowing smirk spread across Lindsay's face as he shook his head at the same time.

"I don't think my sister fully relaxes. But, she'll warm up, eventually. Bela doesn't take kindly to strangers, no matter how much she can get from a piece of paper or from the way Caulder and Dash talked you up. Hell, she's beyond reasoning at a certain point. I'm sure you'll figure what that point exactly is on your own. When she gets like that, it's best to just leave her alone."

King felt the chill of worry creep down his spine. Not only did the prospect of finding Bela's boiling point make him anxious but how much about him did these people already know? _Did that mean they knew everything? _He was certain that everyone heard about the tragedy, otherwise why would he be here? But to what extent were they informed? Lindsay suddenly broke him away from his thought when King felt a heavy hand pat his shoulder.

"Hey man, don't worry about it, I'm not asking..."

Silently, King breathed a sigh of relief. It was now official. He liked this guy. Hell, he even started to look up to him. Due to their quiet understanding, he felt he could relax a little more, at least with one of his new crew. Lindsay checked his watch and noticed that they had spent a little over an hour just talking. He glanced up at King. He was no different than he himself had been a few years ago. Once he got used to everything, Lindsay knew he'd be just fine.

"If you don't mind, I'm fucking starving, so unless you want to join, then I'll leave you here to plunder on your own. Just a warning though, if you see a door with words carved in it, that's Bela's room. No _going_ into Bela's room, understand? She _really_ doesn't like that."

King snickered.

"I figured as much..."

Just as he said that, King's stomach rumbled from ignored hunger. Lindsay cocked an eyebrow and chuckled.

"I'm planning on cooking some hotdogs on the Foreman grill, you want a few?"

King considered it and just nodded, thinking that eating would be a good idea to at least quiet the monster doing callisthenics in his stomach.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Mikey watched Bela closely with undivided interest and faint amusement. Bela met his eyes in weary hesitation before turning to her plate again. Just as much as she tried to deny it, he could still read her like an open book. Mikey just settled his chin on his hand for continued observation. His floppy copper hair hung in shambles around his eye. While it was true that he was just a hair shorter than 6"; a bit lanky and thin, Bela could attest to the fact that he possessed a certain amount of strength. He had quite sharp features too. There was something very Bowie-esque about him. His quiet voice made her slightly flinch unexpectedly when he opened his mouth to speak.

"Are you sure everything's okay with you?"

Bela looked up and nodded doing a bad job of hiding her distraction.

"Yeah...of course. Why?"

Mikey furrowed his brows and pointed to her food.

"Well, you've been trying to cut your chicken with the wrong side of the knife for the past 15 minutes."

Bela stopped her movements, clearly caught. She hadn't been paying attention at all to her food. Truthfully, she was aggravated over _something _about her new house mate. When she shamefully confessed her problem to Mikey, he just gave her a knowing smile and nudged her with his boney shoulder. She on the other hand, let her head drop harshly onto the table, making her plate and misused silverware clank loudly. Mikey laughed softly into her ear as he bent to kiss her on the temple. Unfortunately, that was also the time that King and Lindsay decided to make their entrance. Concern swept over Lindsay's brow while strange repulsion rose in King's throat.

"What's the matter?"

Mikey stroked Bela's hair soothingly but seeing as the subject of her dismay was standing right there, he didn't give her away.

"She's just not feeling too well."

King was sure that he'd lose his appetite for good if that kid didn't stop fondling her hair. Inside his own head, he didn't know where these violent tendencies were coming from, but he didn't like the apparent closeness of the two of them. Maybe it was because Bela had insulted him within seconds of laying eyes on him. Maybe it was because that singular action had reminded him of his Abby more than anything else had in the last month. Maybe, he was just rapidly developing a protectiveness of her because of the way Lindsay spoke of her. He had yet to figure it out, but all of these conflicting thoughts were making him feel sick.

Lindsay walked over to his sister and moved her hair from her forehead. _She did look a little angst-ridden. _

"Why don't you go lay down for a bit, hmm?"

She lifted her head slightly from the table and saw that King was standing there and blanched completely. Lindsay saw the physical change and lightly pushed her up, more demanding that she rest now.

"Yeah, look, go lay down. You need to rest. I'll give you my knife if that means that it'll stop you from passing out and potentially injuring yourself."

It didn't take much of a push for her to silently agree. Mikey anchored her to his side with his arm wrapped around her waist. Speaking softly to her.

"We'll get you settled and then I'll get you some tea..."

They both disappeared beyond the hallway and King turned to Lindsay when his heard him sigh rather deeply.

"You know how bulimics go on binges? Well, if there was such a disease like that with insomnia, that's what my sister would have. Bela stays up for days and then sleeps for 18 hours and starts all over again."

King just nodded agreeably, not really having a standpoint on the issue. He was more fascinated with the fact that he had never seen anyone like that. Somewhat unconsciously, King pulled a mug from the dishwasher and filled it with water. Earlier, he saw different boxes of tea by the coffee stuff, so he shuffled through them and picked up a bag of earl grey and set it into the microwave for a few minutes. This behavior didn't go unnoticed by Lindsay. Caulder and Dash were right, that man did watch out for everyone, no matter how small the task, _or how big the attitude. _Remembering how Bela acted the night before, he just hoped that she realized that in spite of his sordid past, Hannibal King was a good guy.

After the food was prepared, King sat in shock at the rate in which the said food was disappearing down Lindsay's throat. He felt like he was just in time for feeding hour at the lion's den. The man just unceremoniously masticated the food without a second thought for his audience. Right as King was taking his first bite of his hotdog, the diminutive boy returned into the kitchen to start making tea when he interrupted him.

"There's already a mug for her sitting in the microwave..."

A brief registration of shock registered on Mikey features before he opened the microwave door and saw that there was indeed a steaming cup all ready for her. He looked over to King, eyebrows raised with noticeable gratitude and a slight grin.

"Thanks King..."

With that he pulled the milk out of the fridge, put a little bit of it into the tea, and grabbed a plastic coffee stirrer. He held it in his teeth as he picked up a discarded book and then he left without another word. King just sat there perplexed. He had almost been here a full 24 hours and the kid had to be the first one to use his name without it being part of an introduction. Sure, he was being really hard on this Mikey person, but he still had an itch in his brain about him that he couldn't scratch. Lindsay, who for the most part ate in silence, noticed King's anxiety and took a moment out of mutilating his lunch to speak.

"Don't mind him too much, he's really, very quiet and just as equally protective of Bela as I am. He's more open to the idea of refugee Nightstalkers than Bela is though. He's a nice guy. I know he looks frail, but don't let that fool you. And, he's a damn good weapon's designer too, not to mention, he's the only one around here that keeps my sister smiling for the most part. They're pretty much inseparable."

King finally decided to pony up and ask.

"Are they..."

Lindsay cocked a brow.

"Together? Hmm...maybe. They're both very affectionate to eachother. I don't really know... then again it could be just a comfort thing. He's been here just as long as we have and Bela took right to him. As long as she's not screaming at me, then I'm happy."

King suddenly felt bad for giving the kid such a hard time. Even though Mikey was completely unaware of the thoughts that passed through his mind. He'll give his overworked brain a rest and try not to prejudge anyone from here on in.


End file.
